Rihannsu
by Starsinger
Summary: I had a dream the other night and suddenly realized that the Romulan story is going to be much longer than anticipated, so I'm pulling it out and making it its own story separate of Dribbles and Drabs. McCoy gets an unusual invitation.
1. Chapter 1

**Rihannsu**

by Starsinger

**In case you're wondering, this is the term that Romulans refer to themselves in many non-cannon books. For those of you who know TOS, Charvanek is the commander of the Romulan Bird-of-Prey in "The Enterprise Incident". For the rest of you, it's not terribly necessary to know that for this story. This is for **** T'Xiao**** and ****Doggielilly****, a two fer as you would say. Spock and McCoy find themselves stuck on a Romulan Bird-of-Prey, special guests (and I do mean guests, they haven't done anything to piss the Romulan Empire off, yet) of its commander who is quite beautiful, in a green-blooded sort of way. One of them catches her eye. Don't own them.**

"Ya know," McCoy said with a shaky laugh. "Jim would be laughing at us right now if he could see us."

Spock lifted an eyebrow, "What Jim would or would not do now, is irrelevant, Doctor." What had happened to land them as guests on a Romulan Bird-of-Prey? Well, as far as McCoy was concerned, it was a funny story. He and Spock were heading back from shore leave on Omega Eridani Prime when the freighter was attacked by pirates. The tricky part of going on shore leave near either neutral zone are pirates, unless you're on a starship, and they don't attack those, unless they have a death wish.

Anyway, they were on a freighter, and were attacked. The captain put out a distress call and a nearby ship responded. No one was prepared for the massive Romulan warship to appear out of nowhere, literally. It just materialized and started shooting the pirates out of space. Some turned and fled but the fiery green light followed them into oblivion. Spock and McCoy were in civilian clothes, but still their Starfleet IDs would have been in the ship's computer. They watched curiously as Romulans came on board the freighter to ensure that it would be able to get on its way. Romulans may be militaristic, but impeding trade was never considered a good thing.

Then the Captain started babbling about having two Starfleet officers returning from shore leave and needing to get them back to base before long. That got the attention of the Romulans. Spock and McCoy didn't know what was happening until the Romulan Commander, Charvanek, stood in front of the passengers and told them that those officers would be allowed on their ship and taken to meet theirs, all they had to do was step forward.

Both officers looked at each other, confused. They had good reason to be wary of Romulans, but the Commander was beautiful, even if Spock wasn't interested. They shrugged, knowing the freighter wasn't going anywhere for a while, and stepped forward. Charvanek walked to them, studying them. She studied Spock most closely, "I've never met a Vulcan before, you are Vulcan, correct?" Spock nodded his head. She looked at McCoy and did something he'd never seen Vulcan do, she smiled. "Welcome aboard the Honor Blade, gentlemen. We are heading for New Vulcan, an envoy of the Emperor, my cousin by the way. I've been told we're expected, so we won't be cloaked outside the Neutral Zone. Honor Blade, five to beam up."

The Honor Blade stayed around long enough to ensure the freighter was being towed back to the nearest planet. Then she took off to rendezvous with a Federation ship, happily enough it was the Enterprise. Sub-commander Tal, Charvanek's second in command, escorted them to their room. The room was sparse and bare with two bunks to hold them. He bowed and left as the two sat on the bunks.

"Well, at least they're taking us to the Enterprise," McCoy said cheerfully, Spock sank into a trance.

**This will be a multi-part story. It'll take about two weeks to rendezvous with the Enterprise, and these two cooped up with each other will stretch Charvanek's hospitality VERY thin. Hope you enjoy, please Read and Review.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Rihannsu Part 2**

by Starsinger

**I can't promise that the Romulan chapters will be together, I'm contemplating a request from AlbusSPotter right now, but they will be headed with Rihannsu. Jim gets word that his wayward officers are taking alternate transportation. Don't own them.**

Kirk was in his office after speaking to the Admiralty. They wanted the Enterprise to escort a Romulan Bird-of-Prey named the Honor Blade into Federation Territory and to New Vulcan where its Commander, Charvanek, would meet with the Vulcan High Command. And while they were there, could he please take a look at their cloaking device? Pretty please? They weren't asking for a lot. They figured, apparently, with a Captain and an Engineer with engineering degrees, they could figure it out between the two of them. Jim shrugged as he looked up from a report to find Uhura storming in, she was speaking in three different languages, two he spoke fluently, the third, he was still trying, unsuccessfully, to get the hang of. Romulan, Reman, and Rihannsu were the three dialects of Romulan. Romulan was the language Romulus, Reman was the language of the Remus, and Rihannsu was the native language of the Vulcanoids who had been living on Romulus when the Romulans took over.

"That son-of-a-bitch, how dare he do this? It's not like last week wasn't my birthday…" Kirk blanched. They'd thrown her a party, hadn't they? She continued her tirade until Jim stood in front of her.

"Nyota, look whatever I did, I'm sorry. I didn't mean too, I know I can be jerk but could you just calm down?"

Uhura came out of her tirade to realize that Jim was standing in front of her, "What are you doing here, Captain?" she asked.

"This is my office, Uhura," he said carefully.

Uhura looked around, astonished to find herself there. "I'm sorry, Captain, it wasn't you I was upset about. I just received word that the freighter Spock and McCoy were on was attacked by pirates. A Romulan vessel picked them up and are headed into Federation space. Did you know they expect to rendezvous with us?"

"Yeah, just got word. Wait, did you say they're on their way here on a Romulan vessel, together?" he asked, alarmed. Jim groaned as Uhura nodded, "Oh, this isn't going to end well. I won't be at all surprised if neither gets here because the Commander decided to chunk them both out an airlock." Uhura wisely said nothing, she wouldn't be surprised either.

In Sickbay a young Lieutenant Commander Terise Haleakala-LoBruto was getting used to her new ears and eyebrows. Soon, she would be going deep undercover into the Romulan Empire. Not as a spy, per se, but as an Anthropologist. The Federation wanted her to learn everything she could about the culture so they could be better understood. Nurse Chapel smiled at her, "Well, the crew will just think you're another Vulcan."

She wasn't sure of the details, all Terise knew was that her new name was Arrhae ir-Mnaeha. A Rihannsu who had escaped slavery and was recaptured to be brought back to Romulus to a new master. She wasn't sure at all about being a slave, but for a budding Anthropologist, this was the chance of a lifetime and one she couldn't turn down after Admiral Barnett presented it to her. Terise took a deep breath, she could do this. This was why she joined Starfleet. She smiled at Nurse Chapel and left to find Uhura, she had a lot more of the Romulan language to learn if she was going to pull this off.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 **

by Starsinger

**Charvanek knows her guests don't read Romulan, so she makes it easy for them to know which areas are off-limits. McCoy goes exploring, while Spock does what Spock does. Don't own them.**

Charvanek told them that the places that were off-limits would have guards in front of the doors. That, theoretically, would keep everybody out of trouble. McCoy, fortunately, wasn't Jim, and didn't normally go looking for trouble. So, he stayed away from rooms with guards in front of them, didn't enter rooms that were obviously for personal space, found the mess or the Romulan equivalent (and the ale, illegal in Federation space), and found the equivalent of Sickbay.

THAT made McCoy very happy. All the crew on the Blood Wing spoke Federation Standard, it was why they were picked for this mission. The Dohrev was more than happy to show McCoy around his domain. It hadn't occurred to Charvanek to make Sickbay off-limits to the humans, and she probably wouldn't have if it had occurred to her. Dohrev was a petite Romulan with reddish brown hair and unusually green eyes. Like humans, brown was the dominant color for eyes in both Vulcans and Romulans, but other colors popped up occasionally. She and McCoy hit it off immediately, and would spend many hours with their heads together in her office or in the mess.

Spock, on the other hand, found himself in the science section almost immediately. Unlike the Klingons who considered Science a necessary evil, Romulans actually pursued science with a diligence not unlike their Vulcan cousins or many humans. After introducing himself to Borest, head of Sciences, he found himself discussing Quantum Singularities in a way that would have had Kirk's attention. He even showed Borest Jim's paper on the Gagarin Incident, as it had become known as.

"Outside the Sol system, you say? Hmmm. They usually don't approach suns with planetary bodies. I'm surprised that ship didn't have more holes in it."

"No more so than its captain. One of those holes was near her quarters," Spock commented.

Borest smiled, "She wasn't changing clothes for a while, I take it?"

"Much to her dismay, no, she wasn't."

What Charvanek hadn't counted on was the penchant for these two to snipe at each other. Their close quarters made things even worse. Occupants in nearby rooms were actually starting to complain about the noise coming from the room. One night had Charvanek actually standing outside the door listening to the two argue. "Green blooded hobgoblin," was apparently a favored nickname for Spock by McCoy.

McCoy stormed out only to be confronted by the Commander, "Commander."

"Please, Doctor, call me Charvanek," she said smoothly.

"Call me Leonard," he said with a smile. McCoy could be just as charming as Jim when he wanted to be.

"Perhaps we should continue this conversation in my quarters?" Charvanek asked with a quirk of her arched eyebrow. He bowed in acquiescence as they entered the lift. She stopped the lift between decks, "Look, Leonard, I'm going to be blunt. This is the only place I know a bug won't work, and who knows who is Tal Shiar on this ship?" Charvanek muttered, "Tal Shiar are kind of like the KGB on old Earth, the USSR I believe."

"Ah," McCoy commented before nodding his head.

"Your captain is going to try and slip a 'slave' on board, a Rihannsu. Yes, I know, it's barbaric that we have slaves, but our people simply don't know what else to do with the original inhabitants of Ch'Rihan and Ch'Havran. Sorry, Romulus and Remus," Charvanek replied. "My aunt, the Empress Ael, is agreeable to letting this charade take place, but we can't guarantee her safety."

"Terise is a Starfleet officer," McCoy said, getting closer to her. He dark hair and eyes made her almost intoxicating. He couldn't believe he was… "She knows the danger."

Chavanek nodded before ordering the lift to resume its motion. "I find you alluring also, McCoy." He turned to her and nodded his head, they both headed off to her quarters. Spock would have to find himself another roommate.

_Meanwhile on the Enterprise_

Kirk mused through another report as Uhura sat in front of him in the mess, "Jim, eat, you know what McCoy would say if he were here. Don't make me sic M'benga on you." Jim winced, he didn't want any doctor sicced on him, especially M'benga. He picked up his fork and absently started eating. "What are you studying?"

"The profile intelligence has on Commander Charvanek. She's the Empress' niece. She seems to have developed a taste for human men or women, depending on her mood. McCoy might be in less danger than we thought."

"I'm sorry, Jim, can you imagine McCoy with…" Uhura started laughing.

"If it keeps Spock and Bones from killing each other, or getting thrown out an airlock, I'd lock the door behind them myself." Another officer joined them, Jim was still getting used to seeing Terise looking very much like a Romulan. "Are you ready for this, Commander?"

"As ready as I'll ever be," she replied. "Is the plan in ready?"

"As ready as it'll ever be," Kirk replied. "Charvanek has agreed to this, Commander. Others may not be as understanding."

"I'll do my best, Captain," she replied. Jim believed that she would.


End file.
